Role tailored portal solution integrating near real-time metrics, business logic, online collaboration, and web 2.0 content

ABSTRACT

The disclosed solution provides a tailored user experience available through a Web portal that addresses the multiple-view, multiple-data needs of operations, supervisory, policy making, and executive personnel of an organization. These various roles can all be concerned with measurement/assessment of an organization&#39;s compliance with performance targets, for which real-time, near real-time or other metrics are gathered. The metrics can be presented in a role tailored fashion to the portal users in near real-time along with federation of analysis and trend calculation output. Business logic can be applied to the federated data and near real-time metrics to automatically effectuate actions and/or to suggest responses when received metrics exceed previously established boundaries. Collaboration tools and Web 2.0 information sharing technologies can be integrated in the portal to facilitate rapid coordinated responses and to share information across the organization.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of Web portal technologiesand, more particularly, to a role tailored portal solution integratingnear real-time metrics, business logic, online collaboration, and Web2.0 content.

2. Description of the Related Art

Many organizations capture near real-time metrics, which are significantto an organization function. These metrics typically have a normaloperation range within which no actions are required. When an operationrange of the metrics exceeds established boundaries, however, decisiveand rapid action is often demanded. In a large and/or distributedorganization, response actions can involve numerous decisions of humanagents at different management levels. Coordination among these humanagents can be difficult, which can lengthen a situation response time,can result in costly miscommunications, can result in divergentunderstandings of a situation and/or a situation response, can causeimproper reporting/documentation of a response, and the like.

Individual, non-integrated solutions exist that are designed to handleaspects of the above problem. For example, collaboration tools exist tofacilitate communications among human agents. Software based monitoringtools exist to capture and distribute real-time metrics. Widgets existto display metrics as gauges for easy consumption. These tools arepresently scattered across different computing spaces, which areselectively available to decision makers in different forms. Differentdecision makers can have access to one or more of these tools. Differentones of the tools can execute upon different computing systems. Nosingle information mechanism/system exists that can provide metricdriven, time sensitive information to decision makers/action takers of alarge distributed organization in a unified, easy to consume manner.Preexisting software tools fall short of the industry need to detectwhen real-time metrics exceed safe boundaries and to facilitate timely,coordinated responses among key organizational decision makers/actiontakers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The disclosed solution provides a tailored user experience availablethrough a Web portal that addresses the multiple-view, multiple-dataneeds of operations, supervisory, policy making, and executive personnelof an organization. These various roles can all be concerned withmeasurement/assessment of an organization's compliance with performancetargets, for which real-time or near real-time metrics are gathered. Themetrics can be presented in a role tailored fashion to the portal usersin near real-time along with federation of analysis and trendcalculation output. Business logic can be applied to the federated dataand near real-time metrics to automatically effectuate actions and/or tosuggest responses when received metrics exceed previously establishedboundaries, such as a safe operation range for a key performanceindicator.

Collaboration tools and Web 2.0 information sharing technologies can beintegrated in the portal to facilitate rapid coordinated responses andto share information across the organization. For example, onlinecollaboration tools (e.g., instant messaging, online meeting tools,etc.) can automatically identify and/or suggest personnel to assist witha situation where metrics exceed safe operational boundaries. Web 2.0tools can institutionalize data at many different levels, which can besearched and applied to assist with handling a metrics driven situation.

No known conventional tool leverages collaboration tools and/or Web 2.0technologies within a portal to assist with responding to metrics drivensituations, which often require rapid corrective actions be taken toensure organizational assets are restored to a safe operating range assoon as possible. Gains achieved through integrated use of thecollaboration tools and Web 2.0 technologies can be particularlyvaluable, as the severity of necessary corrective adjustments to restoreassets to a safe operating range can geometrically expand as time froman incident causing a deviation increases. That is, continuouslyincreasing adjustments can be required over time as a situation worsens(deviates from a safe operating range), which makes rapid andcoordinated responses of critical import.

It should be noted that various aspects of the invention can beimplemented as a program for controlling computing equipment toimplement the functions described herein, or as a program for enablingcomputing equipment to perform processes corresponding to the stepsdisclosed herein. This program may be provided by storing the program ina magnetic disk, an optical disk, a semiconductor memory, any otherrecording medium, or can also be provided as a digitally encoded signalconveyed via a carrier wave. The described program can be a singleprogram or can be implemented as multiple subprograms, each of whichinteract within a single computing device or interact in a distributedfashion across a network space.

The method detailed herein can also be a method performed at least inpart by a service agent and/or a machine manipulated by a service agentin response to a service request.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

There are shown in the drawings embodiments which are presentlypreferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is notlimited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system for a role tailored portalhaving multiple integrated portlets.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a service oriented architecture (SOA)implementation required to support a role tailored portal in accordancewith an embodiment of the inventive arrangements shown herein.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a portal based emissions system showinga specific implementation of SOA architecture for a role tailoredportal.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method for customizing portal content basedupon metric values, such as when an out-of-bounds event occurs.

FIG. 5 shows a sample role tailored portal interface for integratingnear real-time metrics, business logic, online collaboration, and Web2.0 content in accordance with an embodiment of the inventivearrangements disclosed herein.

FIG. 6 illustrates a role tailored emissions “dashboard” portalconfigured for a plant level operator role in accordance with anembodiment of the inventive arrangements disclosed herein.

FIG. 7 illustrates a role tailored emissions dashboard portal configuredfor a plant manager role in accordance with an embodiment of theinventive arrangements disclosed herein.

FIG. 8 illustrates a role tailored emissions dashboard portal configuredfor a policy maker role in accordance with an embodiment of theinventive arrangements disclosed herein.

FIG. 9 illustrates a role tailored emissions dashboard portal configuredfor an executive level user role in accordance with an embodiment of theinventive arrangements disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system 100 for a role tailored portal110-114 having multiple integrated portlets 120-128. Different portals110-114 can be served by portal server 150 to different clients 130-134to be rendered within a client-side browser 136-138. Different portal110-114 views and data can be tailored for users 140-144 depending upontheir role in an organization. Organizational roles can be based upon ahierarchy of organization authority, can be based upon functional lines,and/or can be specific to particular positions. In one implementation ofsystem 100, for example, organizational roles can include operations,supervisory, policy making, and executive roles.

Each portlet 120-128 can present information in a manner that it can beinteractively drilled-down to various granularity levels for which auser 140-144 has authority; which can, again, vary by user role. Anexample of a drill-down operation can be a clicking on a gauge in ametrics reporting portlet 120 to provide more/less detailed informationrelating to that metric. Content presented in the various portlets120-128 can be dynamically adjusted based upon content of other portlets120-128 in accordance with established programmatic rules. Theseprogrammatic rules can incorporate business logic of the organizationthat the portals 110-114 support.

As shown, the portlets 120-128 can include a metrics portlet 120, a Web2.0 portlet 122, a collaboration portlet 124, a trend portlet 126, aforecasting portlet 127, an alert portlet 128, and the like. Additionalportlets 120-128 (not shown) can include, for example, a people finderportlet, a context navigator portlet, a portlet for external datastreams (from resources 167 or 168 for example) customized by role, anda media presentation portlet. Different portals 110-114 can beconfigured to present different portlets based upon user 140-144configured settings and/or user 140-144 role.

The business logic can be driven by current values of the metricspresented in portlet 120 and how these current values compare againstconfigurable boundaries and ranges of operations. For example, when themetrics deviate from a safe operation range, business logic can triggeran out-of-bounds event. This event can cause alerts to be established inthe alert portlet 128, can result in a search of documents relevant tothe out-of-bounds event through the Web 2.0 portlet 122, can causeimportant contact information for available people needed to resolve theout-of-bounds event to appear in the collaboration portlet 124, and thelike. In other words, the portals 110-114 can serve as focal points fornotifying users 140-144 of out-of-bounds events, for providing necessaryinformation to ensure a quick response, to coordinate this responseacross organization personnel, and to record an organization response ina reviewable and systematic manner.

Metrics driving this process can be based upon values captured bysensors 153 linked to organization assets 152. These metrics can bestored in real-time and/or near real-time by organization IT resources162. A set of services 181 can execute, which provide the portal server150 real-time updates based upon the metrics handled by the organizationIT resources 162. Additional services 181 can link other resources 160,such as collaboration resources 164, Web 2.0 resources 166, publicresources 167, and third party resources 168 to the portal server 150,where obtained/processed information from all of these resources 160 canbe selectively presented within the portals 110-114. Collaborationresources 164 can include instant messaging resources, chat resources,online meeting resources, co-browsing resources, Voice Over InternetProtocol (VoIP) telephony resources, video conferencing resources, andthe like used to permit users 140-144 to communicate. The Web 2.0resources 166 can include, but are not limited to, content managementlibraries or repositories, WIKIs, BLOGS, syndication feeds,folksonomies, mashups, and the like, which users 140-144 can utilize toshare information with other organization users.

As used herein, the portal server 150 can provide data and can functionas a communication intermediary between the clients 130-134 andresources or data sources 160. The portal server 150 can providereal-time and/or near real-time information to portlets 120-128, whichcan require constant updating. The portal server 150 can be optionallyimplemented as a cluster of portal servers (not shown) to provideredundancy and to enable resilient operation of system 100 should one ormore portal servers 150 fail.

Each of the portals 110-114 can represent a Web site or serviceenvironment that centrally offers a broad array of resources andinformation for an organization, such metrics, collaboration resources,contact information, Web 2.0 content, and the like. Each portal 110-114can include multiple Web portlets 120-128, which can vary by a role of auser.

Each portlet 120-128 can be a reusable Web component that displaysinformation to portal users from a designated source, which can bedifferent from the back-end resource that provides information for theportal. An arrangement of portlets 120-128 within a portal 110-114, apresentation of information within the portal 110-114, theresponsiveness of this presentation, and other user perceived factorsall contribute to the user experience of the portal 110-114.

Each of the clients 130-134 can be a computing device capable ofpresenting Web content within a browser 136-138. Each client 130-134 caninclude, for example, a desktop computer, a server, a mobile telephone,a tablet computer, a personal data assistant (PDA), a digital mediaplayer, and the like. Each of the resources 160 can represent aninformation technology resource, such as one or more back-end systems.One of the organization resources 162 can be sensor 153 equippedorganization assets 152. The sensors 153 can capture metrics, which canbe stored in a data store, which is accessible by a data federationservice 182 or other processing component, which ultimately presents themetrics in a metrics portlet 120 in real-time or near real-time.

Each of the engines 180 can be a software program executing within anorganization infrastructure 170 that is able to perform a processingaction against data from one or more of the resources 160. Processingresults can be delivered to the portal server 150. In one embodiment,the engines 180 can be used to implement one or more software services181. The services 181 can include, for example, federation services 182,role services 183, security services 184, configuration services 185,decision services 186, experience services 187, or other 188 services.In one embodiment the services 180 can be SOA services linking resources160 to the portal server 150.

Each of the components of system 100 can be interconnected through anetwork (not shown). The network can include any hardware, software, andfirmware necessary to convey data encoded within carrier waves. Data canbe contained within analog or digital signals and conveyed though dataor voice channels. The network can include local components and datapathways necessary for communications to be exchanged among computingdevice components and between integrated device components andperipheral devices. The network can also include network equipment, suchas routers, data lines, hubs, and intermediary servers which togetherform a data network. The networks can further include circuit-basedcommunication components and mobile communication components, such astelephony switches, modems, cellular communication towers, and the like.Additionally, the network can include line based and/or wirelesscommunication pathways.

Additionally, in system 100 digitally encoded information can be storedin a plurality of data stores (not shown) which are accessible by systemcomponents. These data stores can be a physical or virtual storagespaces configured to store digital information. The data stores can bephysically implemented within any type of hardware including, but notlimited to, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a semiconductor memory, adigitally encoded plastic memory, a holographic memory, or any otherrecording medium. Each of data stores can be a stand-alone storage unitas well as a storage unit formed from one or more physical devices.Additionally, information can be stored within the data stores in avariety of manners. For example, information can be stored within adatabase structure or can be stored within one or more files of a filestorage system, where each file may or may not be indexed forinformation searching purposes. Further, the data stores can optionallyutilize one or more encryption mechanisms to protect stored informationfrom unauthorized access.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a service oriented architecture (SOA)200 implementation of a role tailored portal 250 in accordance with anembodiment of the inventive arrangements shown herein. The looselycoupled nature of a SOA 200 can be advantageous in connecting back-endresources 240 via a service bus 230 to a service gateway 226 for use bya portal server 227. The SOA 200 environment can also make customizinguser experiences for different clients 210 easier than would be possiblewith a more rigid architecture.

As shown, for example, a portal 250 workplace and its portlets can mapto layer 210 of the SOA 200. Multiple user roles and their associatedWeb browsers can access the presentation and application services 220.The presentation and application services 220 can include the userexperience portal server and various support applications, such as anorganization directory, instant messaging, and content management(library) systems. The SOA 200 can bifurcate presentation services fromapplication services in zone 220, which can foster configurable end-userexperiences, while ensuring consistent handling of organizationinformation.

The resources 240 portion of the SOA can be involved with theprovisioning of data required to drive measurements,historical/trending, and marketplace portions of the portal 250workplace. Various back end, enterprise-level systems can yield director to-be-federated (such as by federation service 182) data. Resource240 contributions must be fetched, coordinated, and appropriatelytransformed. The use of domain 231 and enterprise 232 service providersallows the isolation and insulation of back end systems (240), whileallowing access to their functions via Web Services interfaces. Theintegration service provider 234 can integrate information from theother service providers 231, 232 and can communicate with a servicegateway 226. The service gateway 226 can implement dynamic binding,request/response decomposition/composition, and content-based routing ofdocument-literal Extensible Markup Language (XML) requests generallyarriving via Web Services, and provide protocol conversion if necessary.

More specifically, the integration service provider 234 can serve as areference system for service routing and versioning as well as thehandler for complex requests and processes not addressable by theservice gateway 226. All of these “middleware” and “back end adapter”components combine to standardize, normalize, and flexibly implement theloose coupling that is a SOA strength. All serve to optimize thepresentation and application services 220 access to back end systems240; the middleware components 230 may be used to cache fetched data topreempt full round trips (portal 250 to back end resources 240) wherepossible.

Taking the above into account, and for the portal 250 workplace, thepresentation and application services 220 (largely implemented with athe portal server and collaboration technology). The portal server canuse client libraries for the conversion of Java Bean-based requests intodocument-literal XML ones, which are transmitted to the service gateway226 for decomposition (many to individuals) and routing. When thenear-real-time “dial gauges” are generating requests via AJAX, those endup being transmitted via Web services calls to the service gateway 226which enables access to data cached in the service bus 230 or requestedof the appropriate resource 240. Responses can be sent back to theservice gateway 226, which will cache appropriate data and compose atotal response to match all facets of the original request. Subsequentrequests can be matched with cached data before it expires, therebyextending the time before another “full round trip” through the serviceprovider is necessary.

The same approach as above is taken for the “marketplace” portion of theportal 250 workplace, as data relating to trading (for example,emissions credits or offsets) and allowance accounts is accessed onceagain through the user experience 227, the service gateway 226, possiblythe ISP 234 and an appropriate service provider 231-232.

In the cases where multiple service providers 231-232 and back-endsystems 240 must contribute to federated responses or multi-stepbusiness processes must be run for analysis or aggregation purposes, theintegration service provider 234 can be utilized. Possessing businessprocess choreography capabilities, the integration service provider 234is able to handle requests involving conversions and synthesis theservice gateway 226 cannot. As response routing does go back through theservice gateway 226, however, the ability to capture complex results incache is still present, and can be leveraged for subsequent requests. Anexample of a request requiring aggregation of data from various back-endresources is when portal 250 workplace fetches its past, present, andfuture information in one request for a historical/trending portlet. Theintegration service provider 234 provides the breakdown and stepsrequired to access each contributing back end system, and thenaggregates the responses to form one “answer.”

In summary, the “visible” portion of the portal 250 workplace leveragesthe “invisible” portion provided by the SOA infrastructure 220, 230 and240 in order to access the various pieces of data required to drive itsmix of portlets. The employment of client-side Java Beans forconvenience, document-literal XML, content-based routing, dynamicbinding, multi-step request handling, and Web services enablement ofback ends contributes to this goal.

It should be emphasized that the architecture 200 is shown forillustrative purposes only and that the scope of the invention is not tobe limited in this regard. For instance, other SOA architectures nothaving an integration service provider 234 component can be used toimplement the portal 250 functionality. Other architecture types, suchas a RESTful architecture, can also be used to implement portal 250functionally in different invention embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a system 300 showing a specificimplementation of SOA 200 in a context of an emissions dashboardsolution. That is, emissions specific metrics can be presented withinemissions portlets 303-306 in a configurable fashion. An interactionengine 302 can compare current emissions metrics against previouslydefined boundaries to determine if an out-of-bounds event has occurred.If so, an alert to this effect can be posted to an alert portlet 307.Additionally, other portlets (not shown) can respond to theout-of-bounds event. The client 308 upon which the portal is associatedcan optionally utilize an in-memory cache 309 to improve performance,which can be a significant factor since the emission metrics are to bepresented in real-time or near real-time.

For example, each portlet 303-307 of client 308 can utilize interactionengine 302 to interface with the portal server 326. In-memory cache ordata store 309 can be used to store information specifying data sourcesfor updating the portlets 303-307, such as URLs for associated Websites. Data store 309 can also separately store and track foreground(presented) version information for the portlets 303-307 and background(hidden) version information.

The portal server 326 of system 300 can include a user experienceframework 321, a master handler 324, a emissions data handler 322, andan alert data handler 322. Caches 323, 327 and data store 325 containinformation which can also be used by the portal server 326. The client308 can communicate with portal server 326 via a network infrastructure(not shown). Authorization engines (not shown) can ensure security ofportlet data.

User experience framework or engines 321 can interface with specificclients 308. The user experience engines 321 can be communicativelylinked to registration handler (not shown), master handler 324, and datahandlers 322, as shown. Each data handler 322 can be associated with amemory cache 323 and/or 327, which stores frequently updated data andother pertinent update frequency information. Handlers can togetherensure that data presented within client 308 portlets and obtained fromproviders 336 is continuously updated.

In one embodiment, user experience engines 321 can customize enterprisecontent for specific user roles or communication channels, such as acustomer channel, an employee channel, a management channel, an ITadministrator channel, and the like. The communication channels can alsobe linked to different market channels, such as employee systems,kiosks, self-service Web sites, and the like. Accordingly, the userexperience engines 321 can customize streams of enterprise data obtainedfrom an enterprise infrastructure for different front-end systems.Segmenting enterprise data from different front end systems used byclients 308 in such a loosely coupled fashion ensures that enterprisedata can be utilized by different separately customizable systemswithout negatively affecting back-end systems.

Information can be conveyed as Web service data 328 to the portal server326 via a service gateway 331, which is connected to an integrationservice provider 333. Other providers 336 can exist, which communicatewith the gateway 331 and/or the integration service provider 333. Aservice directory 334 can specify the types of services available tosystem 300. Middleware components 331, 333 can optionally use one ormore memory cache 332 to improve system 300 performance.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method 400 for customizing portal contentbased upon metric values, such as when an out-of-bounds event occurs.The method 400 can be performed in the context of system 100.

Method 400 can begin in step 405, where a portal service (e.g., decisionservice 186) can detect that current metrics exceed a safe range definedusing previously established boundary values, which can be userconfigured. This detection can trigger an out-of-bounds event. In step410, a data store (such as cache 323) can be updated with the metricdata, which ultimately results in this data being displayed withinclient portlets in near real-time. In step 415, a set of roles/usersthat are to be notified of the occurrence of the out-of-bounds event canbe determined. In step 420, alerts can be conveyed to appropriate usersdetermined in step 415. Alerts can be presented within an alert portlet(e.g., portlet 128) of a portal workplace 110-114 or can beautomatically conveyed through another means.

Different contact rules and mechanisms can be established to moreaggressively contact key users depending on the severity of theout-of-bounds event and its significance to an organization. Forexample, when the out-of-bounds event is routine, the alert portletalone can be a contact mechanism of choice. When an out-of-bounds eventis highly significant, email, fax, text messages, voice messages,paging, and the like can be used to contact suitable response personneland to inform them of the occurrence of the out-of-bounds event. Thiscan enable the contacted user to go online and receive more detailedinformation via a customized portal.

In step 425, collaboration service data can be updated to indicate keyproblem resolving personnel and contact mechanisms for communications.For example, a plant manager can instantly be presented with contactinformation via a collaboration portal that shows maintenance personnelqualified to resolve the out-of-bounds event. Collaboration services canalso indicate availability of key decision makers, who are to becontacted (such as through a group chat session) to ensure a rapid andcoordinated response. In step 430, a Web 2.0 repository of documents canbe searched for relevant information relating to the out-of-boundsevent. This information can be placed in a data store in step 435, whichcan be used to populate Web 2.0 portlets for appropriate personnel.

For example, a plant manager can be presented with a WIKI detailingproper plant-level protocol for responding to the out-of-bounds event. Amaintenance worker logging onto the organization portal can be presentedwith maintenance manuals, repair BLOG entries, and the like relevant forhis/her tasks in resolving the out-of-bounds event. This example showsthat information provided in a portal related to the out-of-bounds eventcan be role tailored to be relevant for a particular user.

FIG. 5 shows a sample role tailored web browser or portal interface 510for integrating near real-time metrics, business logic, onlinecollaboration, and Web 2.0 content in accordance with an embodiment ofthe inventive arrangements disclosed herein. The interface 510 can be aninstance specific example of portal 110-114 from system 100. That is,the portal shown in interface 510 can provide a roles based, tailoreduser experience for ensuring compliance with the previously establishedboundaries for the near real-time metrics. Different roles supported bythe Web portal interface 510 can include, for example, operations,supervisory, policy making, and executive roles. Each role can havedifferent data needs that are expressed within the interface 510 in arole specific manner.

As shown, interface 510 can include a set of metric portlets 512, 520,522, 524, and 526, each able to present real-time or near real-timemetrics. Metric portlets 512, 520, 522, 524, and 526 can includegraphical widgets that show current values relative to “normal”operational boundary conditions. Data presented in the portlets 512,520, 522, 524, and 526 can be based upon sensor readings and/or afederation of data from multiple sources. The metric portlets 512, 520,522, 524, and 526 are not limited to graphical expressions, and tablesof data, charts, summaries, and the like can also be presented. In oneembodiment, each of the metric portlets 512, 520, 522, 524, and 526 canbe configured to drill-down to various levels of detail.

Portlet 530 is a historical measurement and/or trend analysis portlet,which presents historic information related to the near real-timemetrics and/or presents forecast information related to the nearreal-time metrics. Portlet 530 information can quickly permit a user toput current metric values in context, which can facilitate making anappropriate and timely response to an out-of bound event or to asituation likely to result in an out-of-bounds event.

The alerts portlet 540 can automatically present a notification to a setof organization associated users whenever the near real-time metricsexceed the set of previously established boundaries. Other organizationpersonnel can also post alerts 540 directed towards specific usersand/or user groups.

The Web 2.0 portlet 550 can be used to access a set of shared documentsrelevant to an organization. Entries available through portlet 550 canbe designed to provide insight required to make tactical and strategicdecisions to achieve metric driven value targets, to maintain the nearreal-time metrics within safe operational ranges relative to the set ofpreviously established boundaries, and/or to otherwise conduct userspecific organization tasks.

The collaboration portlet 560 can facilitate communications amongorganization associated users through various online and externalcommunication channels.

The portlets shown in interface 510 are not intended to becomprehensive. Additionally, design choices for interface 510 arearbitrary and use of other design choices falls within the scope to thedisclosed invention.

FIGS. 6, 7, 8, and 9 show sample portal interfaces for an emissionsdashboard portal, which is one of many contemplated/potential uses forthe disclosed invention. The portal interfaces of FIGS. 6, 7, 8, and 9specifically show several renderings of an emissions dashboard portal tocorrespond to a number of different supported user roles. These rolesinclude a plant-level operator (FIG. 6), a plant manager (FIG. 7), amid-level policy making user (FIG. 8), and an executive level user (FIG.9). The elements and concepts expressed for the emissions dashboardexample should be broadly interpreted to be applicable to any metricsdriven portal.

FIG. 6 illustrates a role tailored emissions dashboard portal 600configured for a plant unit level operator role in accordance with anembodiment of the inventive arrangements disclosed herein. A plant leveloperator can be concerned with an overall status of unit within a plan.Hence, the portal 600 can be configured to provide an overview of unitperformance in the context of the local plant.

Portal 600 can include a set of emissions portlets 610-616, an alertportlet 620, an Instant Messaging (collaboration) portlet 622, a peoplefinder portlet 624, and a navigation portlet 630.

FIG. 7 illustrates a role tailored emissions dashboard portal 700configured for a plant manager role in accordance with an embodiment ofthe inventive arrangements disclosed herein. Although portal 700 can besimilar to portal 600, a plant manager can be more concerned withbroader details of his/her plant as well as broader organizationalmatters than a plant operator.

As shown, portal 700 can include a set of emissions portlets 710-716, analert portlet 720, an Instant Messaging (collaboration) portlet 722, apeople finder portlet 724, a navigation portlet 730, and a historicalemissions portlet 735. Content contained in each portlet 710-730 canvary from content of portlets 610-630, due to the different role. Forexample, a set of alerts directed towards plant operators can bedifferent than a set of alerts for plant managers. The addition of thehistorical emissions portlet 735 illustrates an increased focus onoverall plant details for portal 700 compared to portal 600.

FIG. 8 illustrates a role tailored emissions control portal configuredfor a policy maker user role in accordance with an embodiment of theinventive arrangements disclosed herein. More specifically, the policymaker role can be a financial one concerned with emissions offsettrading shown by portlet 840 and concerned with emissions accounts shownby portlet 845. The remaining portlets 810-835 can be identical innature to those of portal 700, other than the presented content istailored for a different user having a different role within theorganization.

FIG. 9 illustrates a role tailored emissions control portal 900, 940configured for an executive level user role in accordance with anembodiment of the inventive arrangements disclosed herein. FIG. 9 showsa selection of a portal tab 950, 960 other than a home tab 902, which isshown for FIGS. 6-8. The home tab 902 for FIG. 9 can present equivalentportlets to those of portlet 800 other than having content tailored fora different role and user.

When a public perception tab 950 of portal 900 is selected by anexecutive level user, interface 900 can be presented. Interface 900 caninclude a quarterly report portlet 952, a public perception portlet 954,a new technologies portlet 956, and a news portlet 958 concerned withpublic perception.

When a shareholder perception tab 960 of portal 900 is selected,interface 940 can be presented. Interface 940 can show a company stocktracker portlet 962, an earnings per share portlet 964, an organizationstock report portal 966, and a user's stock portfolio portlet 968.

The present invention may be realized in hardware, software, or acombination of hardware and software. The present invention may berealized in a centralized fashion in one computer system or in adistributed fashion where different elements are spread across severalinterconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or otherapparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein issuited. A typical combination of hardware and software may be a generalpurpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loadedand executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out themethods described herein.

The present invention also may be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer systemis able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the presentcontext means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of aset of instructions intended to cause a system having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different materialform.

1. A metrics driven method for presenting data within a portalcomprising: logging a user into an organization portal; determining anorganization role for the user; graphically presenting within a metricsportlet of the organization portal, near real-time or other metricstailored for the determined organization role; providing onlinecollaboration capabilities through a collaboration portlet of theorganization portal, which are tailored for the determined organizationrole; and permitting data sharing among organization users through a Web2.0 portlet of the organization portal, which is tailored for thedetermined organization role.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving a user selection to drill down the metricsportlet; and responsive to the user selection presenting metric specificinformation at a lower level than originally presented within themetrics portlet, wherein the lower level metrics are tailored for thedetermined organization role.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: detecting that the near real-time metrics exceeds apreviously established boundary condition; triggering an out-of-boundsevent; programmatically determining a set of users of the organizationportal which are to be apprised of an occurrence of the out-of-boundsevent; constructing role specific alert messages for each user in thedetermined set; and presenting within user specific versions of theorganization portal the constructed alert messages.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, further comprising: searching a Web data repository for itemsspecific to the out-of-bounds event, wherein said search software istriggered by an occurrence of the out-of-bounds event; and alteringcontent of the Web 2.0 portlet to include items from the Web datarepository that result from the searching step.
 5. The method of claim3, further comprising: determining relationships among the users in thedetermined set to determine collaborations among users that arepotentially beneficial for resolving the out of bounds event; andaltering content of the collaboration portlet to include collaborationitems in accordance with the determined relationships.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the organization portal is served by a portal server,wherein the portal server is part of a service oriented architecture(SOA), wherein the near real-time metrics are conveyed from a resource,to a middleware service provider, to a service gateway, and then to theportal server.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of claim 1are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least onecomputer program stored in a computer readable media, said computerprogramming having a plurality of code sections that are executable bythe at least one machine.
 8. A portal server comprising: a plurality ofrole specific programmatically implemented customizations for providingrole tailored portals to a set of authorized users of an organization;fetching software configured to obtain near real-time metrics from atleast one back-end resource; metric software configured to graphicallyindicate values of the near real-time metrics within a portlet of aserved organization Web portal; collaboration software configured toconduct online collaboration communications responsive to a userselection from within a portlet of the served Web portal; and Web 2.0software configured to grant access to a shared organization resourcefrom within a portlet of the served Web portal.
 9. The portal server ofclaim 8, wherein different roles supported by said role specificprogrammatically implemented customizations comprise operations,supervisory, policy making, and executive roles, each role havingdifferent data needs that are expressed within said served Web portal ina role specific manner.
 10. The portal server of claim 8, wherein thefetching software, the metric software, the collaboration software, andthe Web 2.0 software are implemented as Web services.
 11. The portalserver of claim 8, wherein the portal server is part of a serviceoriented architecture (SOA), wherein the near real-time metrics areconveyed from a resource, to a middleware service provider, to a servicegateway, and then to the portal server.
 12. The portal server of claim8, further comprising: software configured to detect when obtained nearreal-time metrics have exceeded a previously established boundary, whichtriggers an out-of-bounds event; and software configured to present analert within a portal of the served Web portal responsive to anoccurrence of the out-of-bounds event.
 13. The portal server of claim12, further comprising: search software configured to search a Web 2.0data repository for items specific to the out-of-bounds event, whereinsaid search software is triggered by an occurrence of the out-of-boundsevent, wherein said Web 2.0 software alters content of a portlet of theserved Web page to include results produced by the search software. 14.The portal server of claim 12, further comprising: contact queryingsoftware configured to search an organization directory for a set ofpersonnel associated with responding to the out-of-bounds event, whereinsaid collaboration software alters content of a portlet served of theserved Web portal to include results produced by the contact queryingsoftware.
 15. A Web portal comprising a plurality of portlets, saidportlets comprising: at least one metrics portlet configured to presentnear real-time metrics relative to a set of previously establishedboundaries and value targets that are significant to an organization; atleast one Web 2.0 portlet configured to share information amongorganization associated users, said shared information comprisingsearchable content repositories of user provided and updated informationdesigned to provide insight required to make tactical and strategicdecisions to achieve the value targets and to maintain the nearreal-time metrics within safe operational ranges relative to the set ofpreviously established boundaries; and at least one collaborationportlet configured facilitate communications among organizationassociated users to permit said users to rapidly respond to deviationsin the real-time metrics relative to a desired range of values and toadjust organization assets to restore the real-time metrics to valueswithin the desired range as rapidly as possible, wherein said Web portalprovides a roles based, tailored user experience for ensuring compliancewith the previously established boundaries for the near real-timemetrics.
 16. The Web portal of claim 15, further comprising: at leastone alert portlet configured to automatically present a notification toa set of the organization associated users whenever the near real-timemetrics exceed the set of previously established boundaries, whereinsaid set of organization associated users are indicated within a datastore to be individuals responsible for taking corrective actions inregard to a situation indicated by the notification, wherein when thenotification is presented, the collaboration portlet automaticallypresents communication specific items for each of said indicated set oforganization associated users, and wherein when the notification ispresented, the Web 2.0 portlet automatically presents documents from thecontent repository related to the indicated situation and relevant asdetermined by a set of programmatic rules to a role of the user of theWeb portal.
 17. The Web portal of claim 15, further comprising: at leastone historical measurement and trend analysis portlet configured topresent historic information related to the near real-time metrics andto present forecast information related to the near real-time metrics.18. The Web portal of claim 15, wherein said Web portal is served by aportal server, wherein said portal server utilizes a plurality ofservices to communicate content from a set of back-end resources to aportal server.
 19. The Web portal of claim 15, wherein different rolessupported by said Web portal comprise operations, supervisory, policymaking, and executive roles, each role having different data needs thatare expressed within said Web portal in a role specific manner.
 20. TheWeb portal of claim 15, further comprising: a software program thatfires an out-of-bounds event when the near real-time metrics exceed thepreviously established boundaries, wherein an automated programmaticaction altering content in the Web 2.0 portlet and the collaborationportlet is triggered by a detection of the out-of-bounds event, whereinthe content altering is designed to facilitate a resolution of theout-of-bounds event.